Law Librarian

TBD

All visitors must pass through a magnetometer
upon entering the courthouse.

Overview

The Charles B. Swartwood Law Library, Chemung County, was established as the Supreme Court Library at Elmira on April 4, 1895 (L.1895, Ch. 231). Originally housed in a county building on Lake Street, the devastating Hurricane Agnes Flood of 1972 resulted in its relocation to the Hazlett Building at 203-205 Lake Street where the library now resides.

Renamed 1992 in honor of an esteemed local jurist, the Hon. Charles B. Swartwood, the library serves the bench, bar, and public in and around the County of Chemung. The library’s collection includes both Federal and New York State primary materials, West’s Regional Reporters, general practice treatises, and a small Pennsylvania collection, and is maintained in a variety of formats including print, microform, audio and video, and CD-ROM.

The Charles B. Swartwood Law Library is a member of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL),the Association of Law Libraries of Upstate New York (ALLUNY), and the South Central Research Library Council (SCRLC).

From all directions: Take Route 17 (East or West) to exit 56 (Church Street). Take a left onto Lake Street. The Library is located on the corner of Lake and Market Streets. (Map of Elmira prepared by Mapquest)

Parking

Metered parking is available on both Lake and Market Streets. A parking garage is located on the corner of Market and Baldwin Streets. From Lake Street, take a right onto Market Street. At the traffic light, take a left onto Baldwin Street. The entrance to the parking garage is on your left.

Reference Services

Law library staff will assist the judiciary and members of the bar in securing all information they deem necessary in researching legal issues or in the practice of law.

The law library staff will provide legal information to the non-lawyer community by providing access to the materials in the collection. Because of ethical and legal implications surrounding the unauthorized practice of law, non-lawyer law library staff cannot interpret the meaning of materials or ascertain their relevance for a patron's particular needs. Staff cannot perform legal research or provide legal advice or render legal opinions or otherwise evaluate a patron's current situation or pending case.

The law library staff will respond to telephone inquiries for cite checks and brief definitions. No other information will be given over the telephone. Staff will not answer telephone inquiries for information which require research or interpretation of legal materials.

Circulation

Any person with a valid library card issued by one of the Court Law Libraries within the Sixth Judicial District [Elmira, Binghamton, Ithaca, Norwich, Cooperstown, Delhi, and Cortland] may borrow circulating materials from the Charles B. Swartwood Law Library subject to the circulation rules of this library.

Library card application/registration forms may be obtained from the staff at any of the Sixth District Law Libraries. At least one form of identification [including but not limited to: valid NYS driver's license, Attorney Registration number, or student identification number] AND proof of current address must be presented in person before a card will be issued. Library cards must be presented in order to borrow any materials. All circulation records are kept strictly confidential (CPLR § 4509).

All circulating items, unless otherwise specified, may be borrowed for a period of 7 days. Overdue materials will be subject to a fine. Materials borrowed via Interlibrary Loan will be subject to the lending institution's loan period and circulation policies.
Materials borrowed from the Charles B. Swartwood Law Library should be returned to this library only, NOT a branch of the Southern Tier Library System [Big Flats, Elmira Heights, Horseheads, Southside, West Elmira, and the Steele Memorial Library]. Failure to return materials to the appropriate library may result in overdue charges being imposed on the patron until the items are received in satisfactory condition.

Photocopies

A vendor-owned copy machine is located near the library entrance. The machine is coin operated.
Copies are $.25 each.

Interlibrary Loans

This library is a member of the South Central Research Library Council (SCRLC). SCRLC is a non-profit organization of academic, public, school, hospital, special and court libraries and library systems in the 14 counties of New York's Southern Tier. The Charles B. Swartwood Law Library cooperates with the SCRLC member libraries, with other law libraries and with government agency libraries in obtaining books and other library materials through interlibrary loan. The cost of this service is determined by the lending library and is passed on to the patron initiating the loan request. Forms for requesting material not owned by this library are available from any staff member.